Kidnapping?
I can understand how the crew had their hands tied by thier POS ops and management support teams.
Now why didn't the crew offer to open the main cabin door, have the stairs out then turn their backs. Who then walks off it's on them. It would have been real funny if the crew fatigued, packed up and got off themselves.
But I wonder if this falls under the form of kidnapping?
From the article: Kristy Nicholas, a spokeswoman for ExpressJet Airlines, said passengers couldn't go to the Rochester terminal to wait out the storms because they would have needed to redo their security screening and screeners had gone home.
The airport's manager, Steven Leqve, said that wasn't true. Leqve said
passengers could have waited in a secure area until their plane was cleared to leave.
"This is not an airport issue. This is an airline issue," he said.
The Rochester
airport took in another diverted flight, a Northwest plane from Phoenix,
just before Flight 2816 landed. The more than 50 passengers on that plane were placed on a bus and made it to Minneapolis by 1:30 a.m.
Leqve said the Delta manager in Rochester offered space on the bus to Continental, which declined.
Don't know the law that may apply well enough and how it may apply here. A person(s) held against their will long after the service they paid for didn't happen. Same person(s) also had the chance to deplane and may not have been informed about the secure area and/or the offer to ride on a bus. Not given the choice to make their own decision. The crime of unlawfully seizing and carrying away a person by force or Fraud, or seizing and detaining a person against his or her will with an intent to carry that person away at a later time.
The law of kidnapping is difficult to define with precision because it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Most state and federal kidnapping statutes define the term kidnapping vaguely, and courts fill in the details. Held against their will it sure sounds like. Sounds like grounds for kidnapping to me.
Regardless, something must be done to prevent this sort of negative experience from happening again.
I thought it was funny how CAL just tossed Express under the bus, backed up and ran them over again for good measure. Nice job CAL!!! I guess CAL has enough negative issues hitting the news this year that they are making it clear who's to blame.
